Jaden wakes up and is sitting up in his bed and looking in all directions. He is back in the large room in the virtual underwater Andromedian city. He is breathing heavily and his heart is racing. Saliva drips from his mouth and he wipes it with his right hand. He wipes his sweaty face with his left hand. He looks around in all directions and is on full alert. He doesn’t see Bellona anywhere.
“What the hell just happened?” Jaden asks.
There is no one in the room, and he just hears an echo.
“Was that just a dream?”
He walks around the room in his boxers looking at the pool of water. Bellona suddenly appears out of thin air.
“Are you okay Jaden. I noticed that you are awake now.”
“I’m fine now. I just had a crazy dream,” he says while sitting back on the side of the bed.
She walks over to him.
“What was it about?”
“I can’t remember now. I just remember bits and pieces of it. I met my girlfriend at school, but I can’t remember anything else. It was very strange. How long was I sleeping for?”
“About eight human hours.”
“Oh okay. Cool. Can I have some water?” Jaden asks.
“Sure you can. Just walk through the pool.”
Jaden walks over and walks through the water. He comes out the other side and the water comes off his skin.
“Man that was refreshing. The water was warm, but I feel like I just drank some cold water. I also don’t have to use the bathroom anymore.”
Jaden walks over to his bed and puts his clothes on.
“Are there nanobots still inside of me?” Jaden asks.
“Yes. They are studying everything inside of you and will give a report soon. This is a lot safer than doing experiments.”
“Yes, I agree. My muscles feel sore like I just came from the gym.”
“Are you feeling better about not being able to go home Jaden?”
“I’m going to try to deal with it, and make the best of it. There isn’t much I can do. Maybe I’ll just be an explorer like Captain Kirk. Maybe I’ll just start my own species on a planet. Who knows, I have so many more options now. My mother always said to make the best of a bad situation. What is there to do on your planet?”
“Would you like to use our Galaxynet? You can see thousands of planets, nebulas, supernovas and see millions of species.”
“Boring, what else is there to do?”
“You can use Optic-vision where you can see live events happening at different parts of the galaxy and talk to different species.”
“Something more exciting,” Jaden says.
“There is a spaceship race about to happen soon.”
“A spaceship race?”
“I know it sounds a little corny, but that is the best choice of words to translate what it is in your language.”
“Oh okay. Tell me more.”
“There is first a qualifying round. About eight spaceships fly through optic-warp from our solar system. Then they reach a solar system about 109 light-years from here. First team there wins the first part of the race. Then they fly up to the speed of light from the star to the last planet in that solar system. There are billions of asteroids and meteors flying in many directions. They have to avoid every one of them without using their matrix vortex shields. Then they fly back, and the first one back to our planet wins. This can be very dangerous, because there are micro black holes and artificial wormholes being created randomly. The racers can only use short-range scanners to detect objects. Anyone with a destroyed ship is put on punishment duty.”
“Punishment duty?”
“Yes, their nano-silicon is rescued from where the ship exploded and they are put on modified assignment for many years. Each elite warrior has their own spaceship assigned to them, which they are responsible for. If they are damaged or destroyed in a game, it is the Andromedian’s responsibility. Myself, Marco and Bomani are elite warriors.”
“Are you all racing?”
“I think Marco will be racing.”
“What about your criminals, what kind of punishment do they get?”
“We don’t have many criminals or citizens breaking the law. We punish our criminals by putting them in a virtual prison. It is just their nano-silicon in a virtual hell. They can be in there for hundreds of years, depending on their crime.”
The 3D video images light up the middle of the room. The image is much larger and it shows the shiny spacecraft flying around a solar system. Jaden looks at how fast the ships are moving and dodging objects in the way.
“This is cool, like a virtual video game. Can I join this race?” Jaden asks, “Do you think Elderone would let me fly also?”
“Jaden,” she laughs, “I seriously doubt if you’ll be able to join. It’s only for elite warriors and you would have to use your human body.”
“I don’t care, I want to race. I think I can handle it, I’m not afraid.”
“Jaden, a guest has never joined one of these races; Elderone would never approve, neither would the supreme elders. Even if you did race, your brain isn’t fast enough to handle the fast maneuvering. If you crash into something at a high speed, you could be disintegrated. There would not be anything to bring back or retrieve from the explosion.”
Jaden thinks about it for a few seconds. He walks around the 3D imaging video.
“I feel I don’t have much to lose. I’m willing to give it a try, if I could join.”
“I admire your courage Jaden. I’ll ask Elderone and show him how you feel. Give me a few seconds.”
‘Come on, please say yes,’ he thinks to himself.
“Sorry Jaden, Elderone said no. He even asked the supreme elders.”
“Oh man, that sucks… oh well,” Jaden says while there is an awkward silence.
“Can I see my artificial body?” He asks with a sad voice.
“Sure, but you can’t operate it unless you are in the virtual tub. It is programmed to mimic your human body. Every nerve ending in your body is redirected into this artificial body.”
“Okay, that’s cool.”
Jaden’s artificial body appears in front of him like an image slowly showing up on a computer with dial-up. Jaden looks around at the body just standing still.
“This artificial body looks like a waxed alien body. Very interesting,” Jaden says while walking around and inspecting the body.
“Jaden, guess what?”
“What?” He asks with a sad face.
“You were just approved for the spaceship race,” Bellona says.
“How? You just told me, I wasn’t approved.”
“Somehow they agreed they wanted you to participate.”
“Alright!” Jaden yells excitedly and accidently knocks over his artificial body.
“Oops,” Jaden says.
It stands up by itself and stays in the same place.
“The way it just got up, looked very creepy.”
“It is programmed to wait for a host to control it, similar to a robot,” she says.
“Jaden, this is the first time a guest has been able to enter one of our racing games. This is highly unusual.”
“I guess I’m changing the rules in the universe. Maybe in a thousand years I’ll be an elder here,” he says.
“You have the same chance of a black president being elected in your country as you have being an elder here,” Bellona says while chuckling.
Jaden laughs, “Whoa, you are getting too American here. That was a good come back”
“Jaden, you have to get prepared.”
“Prepared? Do you mean I have to go through what I went through on Earth again?”
“Not the same thing but similar, but in a fraction of the time.”
“Why can’t I use an artificial body?”
“The signal being transmitted from your human body to your artificial body in space and in subspace wouldn’t be accurate.”
“Oh no, do I get a cool looking ship?”
“It would be a very cool ship, the same ship you were originally flying in. Each ship is usually personal to an individual. The ship bonds to an individual and its DNA. An individual feels pain if the ship feels pain. The good thing is that you don’t have to be in your body when it gets assimilated with the ship.”
“In the future would I always have to go through the same thing?”
“That won’t be a problem in the future. The Darclonians took vital information about how your body reacts in space and with the ship. Stages one, two and three should take less than fifteen minutes. Shall we head to what you would call the airport?”
“Let’s go. Wait a second; can I carry my zombie body?” Jaden asks, while he tries to lift it from its knees.
“Jaden you can’t move it.”
“Man, it weighs a ton.”
“Don’t worry, it will be there too. Ready?”
“Let’s do it.”
The room changes around them like a fade in a movie camera. Everything around them turns completely bright white. They appear on top of a small cloud. Each puffy cloud is about forty feet round. The sun is shining bright over hundreds of round clouds in all directions.
“Where is this?” Jaden asks while he notices he is back in his artificial body.
“This is our airport Jaden.”
It is amazing what he is seeing as he looks all around and sees the ship he was in on Earth all by itself on a cloud. The body is very metallic and reflective and looks like a huge diamond as it sits by itself. He walks around the edge of the cloud and looks down.
“I see the ocean below. What will happen if I jump down?”
“Jump and find out.”
“I have a feeling I don’t want to find out. Where is everyone else?”
“They left already and are waiting for you outside our neighboring planet, Fujin. Your body is in stage two already,” Bellona says.
“Cool. Are we on a real cloud?”
“We are still in our city. These clouds are computer generated. When you are ready to leave, you fly into our simulated sun and you will come out the transport portal way beyond the moon.”
“Cool. I can’t wait to fly again. This is going to be my ship right?”
“Yes.”
“Can I name it?”
“Sure you can.”
“I want to call it…” Jaden thinks to himself while holding his artificial hand to his face.
“Can I get closer to it?” Jaden asks while looking down at the large blue ocean thousands of feet below, “How do I get over there?”
“Let’s see if you can figure it out.”
Jaden looks around, takes a few steps back and tries to leap to the next cloud about ten feet away. He misses by a few feet and spirals downward towards the ocean.
“Aaarrggghhh,” he yells as Bellona looks down and watches him.
The body is transmitting the feeling of falling to Jaden’s human body. The wind is blowing by his face as the ocean quickly approaches. He begins to scream as his body feels a rush. He quickly hits the ocean making a big splash and everything around him is completely white. He reappears a few feet above the cloud he just fell off. His body collapses as he breathes very heavily.
“What happened?” He asks while looking confused on the soft cloud.
“Jaden that was amazing and funny. Your mind thought you were actually about to die, so instantly your mind started to race through all your memories. Your body started to brace for impact and your adrenalin glands released a huge amount of adrenalin into your bloodstream. Your heart was beating faster, oxygen intake increased from your lungs and your muscles got stronger. The nanobots in your human body started to relay all kinds of signals to your artificial body as you were falling down. Your brain was being over stimulated with info. I saw images of the assistant principal beating you in elementary school when you were younger. Images of you opening your eyes just coming out of your mother. Images of your mother in different parts of your life. No images of your father though, that is interesting.”
“I don’t remember seeing all of that.”
“It happened very quickly. It is very interesting how your mind reacts.”
“I can never forget that beaten by the assistant principal. That happened when I went to school in the south, in the early eighties. Teachers and principals were allowed to hit children then when they misbehaved. I have never seen such well-behaved children in the school. I was in the first grade down there learning what children in New York were learning in the third grade. I was so embarrassed that day. I couldn’t take being in the south. I don’t even remember what I did to earn that beating,” Jaden says.
Jaden stands up again and daydreams for a second.
“Oh okay! Thanks for reminding me Bellona.”
“You’re welcome,” she says in a sarcastic voice, then continues in a regular voice, “It seems like physical punishment was the best deterrent for bad behavior for many humans when they are young.”
“I guess so. Anyway, I thought of a cool name, for my ship. I want to call it Gravityhawk. That is somewhat long. Gravhawk is better.”
“How about Galaxyjumper? Eaglewarper? Optic-shuttle?” Bellona asks.
“Those sound too corny. I like Gravhawk better.”
“Okay, it’s your ship.”
“How do I get over there without falling?”
“I’ll tell you. Remember Jaden, everything is easy here. We don’t physically jump nor do things that require too much work. Concentrate on a piece of the cloud at the edge. You see it detaching itself from the rest of the cloud. Now just step on that piece and it will move in the direction that you want it to.”
Bellona floats across to the cloud the ship is on and the small cloud goes into the rest of the cloud.
“Cool.”
Jaden concentrates on a small piece of the cloud and a small piece comes off. He steps onto it and floats over to where Bellona is.
“I guess that was easier.”
“It is interesting to see your brain’s reactions on how it figures things out.”
Jaden rubs the body of the shiny ship. “My Gravhawk, such a cool name. We are going to have some fun together my little friend.”
“Jaden be very careful, this is very dangerous for you. You will be using your real human body in this race. Even though this is a practice race, there is a lot of danger in the Spidone Solar System. There are billions of meteors, asteroids and strong radiation from a nearby collapsed supernova. Please reconsider and not race.”
“I feel Bellona this is something I have to do. I’m stuck on this planet. I can’t go home. I need some excitement and danger in my life. I love adventure and races. I’m also the first non-Andromedian to do this, so I want to see what it is about,” Jaden explains.
“Okay Jaden, as you wish.”
“I won’t be put in a cyberjail if I crash or destroy the ship right?” He asks.
“No, but if you hit something your body will feel it also. You will be able to control your Gravhawk much faster, because you are using a higher percentage of your brain. Your body’s nervous system will be interconnected with your Gravhawk ship.”
“Okay, cool.”
“Are you ready to go Jaden? Your body has finished its preparation.”
“Yes, I am, but first I have to do this.”
Jaden jumps off the cloud again, but this time headfirst.
“Jaden! What are you doing?”
“One for the road!” He yells while he puts his hands in front of him as if he is diving.
His artificial body quickly approaches the large ocean. The wind is blowing all around him. The water changes into sand and he quickly approaches a white desert. He starts to wave his hands around in fear as he covers his face. Jaden begins to scream as his body goes into the sand at a fast speed. Sand goes flying into the air all over the place. He opens his eyes and he is he is instantly looking outside his Gravhawk ship.
Bellona is chuckling.
‘It is amazing how easy it is to deceive your mind and cause panic throughout your body from an image changing,’ Bellona says telepathically.
‘That wasn’t nice Bellona. I was trying to dive from 5,000 feet, which would have been a world record.’
‘You need to get serious Jaden. This is serious business flying in these races. Are you ready to fly?’
‘Yes I’m ready. I just need to check one thing.’
Jaden changes view and looks at his naked body in the fetus position in the life zone.
‘Man, I shitted myself on that one. Or could it been on the first jump?’ Jaden asks.
‘The first jump,’ Bellona says.
‘I was talking to myself, but thanks for your two cents.’
‘No, Jaden you cannot fly the ship into the ocean.’
‘It was just a thought Bellona. I really wasn’t going to do it,’ Jaden says.
Jaden changes his view to outside of the ship. He zooms in different directions. He sees his navigation screen, ALTITUDE -5200 FEET SEA LEVEL, SHIELD STRENGTH 100%, ANTI-GRAVITY ENGINES 100% CHARGED, MANUAL FLIGHT, SPEED 0MPH, RADAR ONLINE, AIR PRESSURE / BAROMETER 5300 PSI, LIGHT ENGINES ONLINE.
‘I can communicate with you without delay until you leave our solar system. Then there will be a small delay, maybe even a major delay. There will be an AI nanobot to help you with basic things for flight. It will be your co-pilot. This was the same AI auto piloting your ship back on Earth.’
‘Okay cool. I’m ready. Let us get this Gravhawk into space. Are you ready co-pilot?’ Jaden asks.
‘Yes sir,’ a soft-spoken voice says.
Bellona moves to a nearby cloud. The Gravhawk lifts up a few feet and levitates. Silver wings come from the body and the tail comes out the rear.
‘Flying into our artificial sun above leads out the other side of the transport portal and you can start off by getting used to flying around here.’
The wings turn vertically and thrust comes from the wings. He quickly takes off leaving a white trail behind him. He passes through hundreds of clouds. He heads directly into the sun. Bright orange light flashes all around him as he increases speed. 12,089 MPH, ALTITUDE UNKNOWN
He enters the artificial sun and the bright light disappears behind him. It is completely dark around the ship. An eerie cold feeling passes through his body. Jaden looks from his long-range nanoscanners in front of his ship. He sees an opening is near.
‘There is no oxygen outside, it feels like we are in space now,’ Jaden says.
‘We are in the transport portal,’ AI says.
‘Let’s go faster then. Light engines one percent.’
A slight flash of light comes out the rear of the ship. The ship slightly shakes. He quickly comes out of the transport portal and billions of stars appear all around. 1861 MPS
‘Jaden, see the map of our solar system?’
‘Yes, I see about nine ships outside of Fujin.’
‘That is where they are waiting for you at.’
Jaden sets a course by thinking of his destination. A line is drawn with the path he will take. He puts the light engines at ninety percent. Everything slows down around the ship and gets dim. The stars fade and the sunlight in the area goes into the Gravhawk. A flash of light is seen and the ship quickly accelerates.
‘ETA is six minutes. Not bad,’ Jaden says.
‘So Mr. AI, how are you today? You were with me while I was on Earth. Why didn’t you speak to me sooner?’
‘I wasn’t allowed too. My mission was to find a human subject, observe the subject to an extent, and then get the subject back to our home planet.’
‘But why did you let me fly the Gravhawk around Earth and cause all that chaos?’
‘The stages weren’t complete. I was allowed to see if the human subject had navigation skills and capable of flying this ship without assistance. You did very well, adjusting to all the weapons and shield technologies. It was very interesting watching how you interacted with other aircraft on your planet.’
Jaden is looking around at the billions of stars while he listens to his new friend AI.
‘We should name you something other than AI.’
‘I think my name is fine. It matches your human vocabulary to artificial intelligence. I’m really AI 89 trillion…..’
‘Yes that’s fine then, all those numbers are too much to know. AI is okay with me.’
They quickly approach the neighboring planet Fujin. He sees a white and grey ring around this planet. The ship slows down. Jaden sees about twenty-five space stations on the ring of this large planet, that is slowly spinning.
‘Hey Jaden, you finally made it,’ Marco says.
‘I didn’t know you were flying with us Marco,’ Jaden says.
‘Yes, I enjoy flying in the race every now and then. I wanted to surprise you. We are leaving now to meet you.’
A few ships detach from the huge rectangular space stations. Jaden is amazed at everything he is seeing. Jaden feels as if he is watching a 3D episode of Star Trek and Star Wars together.
‘Getting used to your Gravhawk I see,’ Marco says.
‘Yes, this ship is amazing.’
‘You haven’t seen everything these ships can do.’
There are eight ships coming up on Jaden.
‘Hello fellow Andromedians,’ Jaden says.
There is no response.
‘Don’t worry about it Jaden. The others don’t really like outsiders and especially in our races. One of our friends had to sit out because you are in the race. So the others…. well you know.’
‘I understand. This isn’t the first time I was an outsider.’
Jaden thinks back to the first time he was an outsider at the first day of elementary school down south.
They pass Jaden and he turns around and follows them. Marco’s ship flies near him.
‘Okay, Jaden these are the rules. First, we are going to leave orbit. Then start the race and hit light speed. Then each ship joins a team of three and connects together as one. We have to work as a team. Then we will work together to create a vortex electromagnetic shield around us to fly faster than the speed of light. Then we ride the strongest solar wind into the sun. The goal is to get the best slingshot before entering optic-warp in subspace. Do you think you can handle this Jaden?’
‘Of course! Count me in, I’m ready. This is just like a radical video game.’
‘I’m ship seven and our friend Calibose is ship eight and you are nine. We are team three,’ Marco says.
‘Hey, how are you doing Jaden?’ Calibose asks.
‘I’m fine. Thanks for acknowledging me,’ Jaden says.
‘Just don’t slow us down; the winners get the best upgrades for their bodies,’ Calibose says.
‘Okay, I’ll try my best. I was a good team player playing football in high school. I could can handle this,’ Jaden says.
The ships leave the planet’s orbit. They line up across from each other. The solar system’s sun is directly in front of them. Jaden sees about twenty nanoscanners checking the path in front of them.
GO is displayed on Jaden’s virtual screen.
Jaden turns on his light engines to one hundred percent. All the ships charge up. The light for hundreds of thousands of square miles around dims and the stars fade. There is a bright flash of light straight across and the ships disappear into a stretch of light.
‘Yeah! This is flying,’ Jaden says.
Light is flying by in different directions. Most of the light is flying away from the sun.
‘Jaden stay as steady as possible. We are going to connect together around you,’ Marco says.
‘Jaden, how is it going?’ Bellona asks.
‘Everything is fine. I’m just trying to concentrate on staying still so we can have this space orgy threesome.’
‘Okay Jaden. I’m here if you need me,’ Bellona says.
The other two teams are almost fully connected.
‘Watch out.’
Jaden moves to the left and the other two ships bail out of the way.
A small asteroid comes into their path and they avoid it.
‘That was close,’ Jaden says, ‘Let’s go fellas.’
‘I’m at 186,100. Try to match my speed,’ Jaden says.
Team two is connected and a blue vortex electromagnetic shield is created around them. They quickly accelerate and the light follows them like toilet paper stuck on someone’s shoes. Their ship disappears into the bright x-ray radiation filled solar winds. Their light stays on the side of the two teams left behind.
‘Come on team, they are ahead of us,’ Jaden says.
‘Hold on Jaden. This has to be done right, and you keep moving,’ Marco says.
‘Sorry, everything is happening so fast.’
‘Calibose is watching the short range radar. We can’t use nanoeyes or scanners,’ Marco says.
‘Calibose almost made us all crash into an asteroid!’ Jaden yells.
Team one is connected and then disappears. Teams one and two pass planet Xenos’ orbit. Jaden keeps his Gravhawk very still. Team three almost fully connects.
‘How are we going to catch up to them?’ Jaden asks Marco.
‘Don’t worry; they took the closest solar winds into the sun, not the strongest.’
‘Jaden, manually zoom around planet Xenos. The magnetosphere around our planet is the strongest and reflects the most solar winds. Look for the fastest moving solar wind and widest light beam. This time of the day they are stronger.’
‘The light path is bending and curving around the planet.’
‘It doesn’t matter; we can turn with the solar wind.’
Team three fully connects to each other. Teams one and two pass the first red planet in the solar system.
‘Could I steal this Gravhawk and go back to Earth?’ Jaden asks.
‘Your ship is set to travel local; you would also need the codes for optic-warping under a black hole’s subspace,’ Marco says.
‘Can I travel directly from this galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy?’
‘Your ship is not made for that type of journey; it would run out of energy. There isn’t much sunlight in between galaxies. Even if you did have the energy it would also take you over two million light-years, to make it to your galaxy.’
‘Oh well, it was just a thought. I found a strong fast moving solar wind on the opposite side of the planet,’ Jaden says.
‘Set a course for the complete path.’
‘Okay, the path is like an S-turn on a highway,’ Jaden says.
‘I bet you never had a ride like the one you are about to have,’ Calibose says.
‘I’m not shitting myself this time I know,’ Jaden says.
They slow down and change direction towards planet Xenos. Teams one and two disappear into subspace behind each other. A large solar flare is exploding outwards from the sun.
‘We aren’t going to win this part of the race, they already went into subspace,’ Jaden says.
‘Don’t worry Jaden, we are going to catch them and make it out before they do,’ Marco says.
‘But why wouldn’t the other teams do the same thing, if this way is the fastest?’ Jaden asks.
‘Sometimes this way works faster, sometimes it’s much slower. I have confidence this way is faster today,’ Marco says.
‘Okay, you’re the speed space racer pro.’
Team three quickly approaches the planet at half the speed of light, 92,142 mps. They enter the solar wind around the planet’s magnetosphere that is shaped like an egg with a spider inside of it. They pass between the large moon and the planet.
NANOTIME is displayed on Jaden’s screen.
‘Before you ask, nanotime speeds up our ships and minds so something that happens fast seems as if it is going in slow motion. Nanotime can be anywhere between a billionth of a second to one-tenth of a second,’ Marco says.
‘Let’s do it! Voltron team!’ Jaden yells as he puts the flight in autopilot.
The planet quickly approaches and the ships reach the turning point. The ships begin to glow. Everything slows down for Jaden. He sees the ships changing direction towards the planet. The force of the turn is so st